Don't Give Money to Charity | BTalk

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(Episode 752; 13 minutes 41) Listen on iTunes.
The title of this edition of BTalk is, of course, an horrendous proposition. We should all give whatever we can afford to help charities do their good work, but a better contribution is to offer your expertise. All charities would benefit from the business skills that BNET readers and BTalk listeners can provide, but often giving time is much harder than digging into pockets.

That's why the World of Difference program is such a clever idea. The Vodafone Foundation pays a salary (up to $60k a year) to each of five participants, so they can leave corporate life and make a difference to a charity of their choosing.

Lisa Clark has left her job in the technology sector to expand the work of Swags for the Homeless, a charity started by her husband to distribute backpack beds to people living on the streets.

Ronni Khan is a previous participant in the program, who left her catering business to concentrate full time on OzHarvest, redistributing food that would otherwise be wasted to those who need it most. The World of Difference program helped Ronni to make the decision to leave corporate life, a choice that she says has been richly rewarding.

Hopefully more corporations will see the benefit of lending some of their expertise to help charities. It's more constructive than just supplying money, and more fulfilling for those who get involved.